The Italian Minister of the Navy was a member of the Council Ministers from 1861 until 1947. Under the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946, the minister oversaw the Regia Marina, and his position was known officially as Ministri della marina del Regno d'Italia, while under the Italian Republic from 1946 to 1947 he oversaw the Marina Militare and was known officially as Ministro per la Marina Militare, the name change becoming official on 13 July 1946. The position was abolished when the Ministry of the Navy merged with the Ministry of Aeronautics and Ministry of War to form the Ministry of Defence in 1947.

Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri, generally known as the Count of Cavour or simply Cavour, was an Italian politician, businessman, economist and noble, and a leading figure in the movement towards Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, a position he maintained throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaigns to unite Italy. After the declaration of a united Kingdom of Italy, Cavour took office as the first Prime Minister of Italy; he died after only three months in office and did not live to see the Roman Question solved through the complete unification of the country after the Capture of Rome in 1870.